Who would believe that Intel's chips for consumers—specifically consumer desktops—would be the bright spot in Intel's earnings report?

While there's no reason to believe that Intel's fourth-quarter earnings contradict the conventional wisdom that the PC market is on the wane, optimists might point out that's exactly what happened. Stacy Smith, Intel's chief financial officer, said that Intel saw PC sales for the fourth quarter at higher levels than what the chipmaker tracked a year ago—and disclosed aggressive plans to push into the Android tablet market in 2014.

"Given the PC market was in the toilet and the phone and tablet division didn't financially perform well, they did well in 2013," Pat Moorhead, principal with Moor Insights & Strategy, said in an email. "In 2014, Intel will need to turnaround mobility, defend the datacenter from AMD, ARM, and Broadcom, and gracefully enter the growing Internet of Things client market."